Margaret Medcalf Award
The State Records Commission established the Margaret Medcalf Award in 2003 for excellence in research and referencing utilizing original sources in the State archives collection. A cash prize of $1,000 is awarded each year to the winner of the Award.
Nominations for this years award closed on 31 March. An announcement of the winner was made on 14 May 2008 in the presence of Margaret Medcalf.
This annual Award honours Margaret Medcalf, the second State Archivist for Western Australia (1971-1989), for her valuable contribution to the development of archives in Western Australia. Works nominated for the Award must demonstrate use of archival sources, and substantial (but not necessarily exclusive) use of State archives held by the State Records Office.
Nominated works may be fiction or non-fiction and may comprise any format (i.e. book, article, conference paper, website, index, etc). Nominated works may be published or unpublished.
Each year, the State Records Office (on behalf of the State Records Commission) calls for nominations for the Award. Nominations may be submitted by anyone, including the author of the work. Nominated works must have been completed or published during the previous year.
The State Records Office may request copies of works from nominees for presentation to the judging panel.
The judging panel for the Award consists of a member of the State Records Commission, the Director of State Records and well-known WA-based historian.
The judging criteria for the Award are:
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Level of use of the State archives collection: how much does the work rely on archival sources for its argument? What proportion of the cited works are State archives?
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Use of referencing: how well does the work reference the sources in the State archives collection? How easy would it be to locate the archival sources the author references?
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Level of contribution to knowledge (historical, cultural, heritage, etc).
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Original use of the State archives collection: does the work use new archival material or use different sources to answer questions or highlight issues? Is well known archival material dealt with in a new or different way?
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Presentation: how well has the work been crafted? How well does it stimulate interest in the material? Does the work have community appeal?
A cash prize of $1000 is awarded each year to the winner of the Award.
A list of previous winners can be viewed online.
